'Working of district admn disappointing'

Administrative Training Institute (ATI) Director General Amitha Prasad expressed disappointment at the functioning of the district administration and the implementation of Right To Information Act (RTI).

She was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day special training programme on improving transparency and accountability in government through effective implementation of RTI at the zilla panchayat hall, here on Tuesday.

Observing that the State has 92,000 public information officers, she said there was a need to give incentives to the officers to provide information voluntarily. She said that she had written to the government for providing incentives.

RTI webpage

Disclosing that a webpage is being designed for RTI, she said that officials would be given training on the functioning of the website, followed by which the public would also be included.

‘Janaspandana’ is a good platform for improving awareness about RTI. In Western countries 85 per cent of RTI queries related to use of public issues. However, in India 85 per cent of the queries are used for settling personal scores, she said. Informing the participants of the programme that public have the right to know about what was happening in the administration, Prasad said that in Mysore applicants have moved court to get information under RTI.

Relating to RTI, government officials are saying that applicants are blackmailing them. But, if official do their work properly then they don’t need to be afraid of anybody, she added.

Stressing on the need for officials to change their mindset, Prasad said that many officials are yet to know about RTI. She said that RTI should function like the election commission.

Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad, ZP CEO G Sathyavathi, JSS Law College Principal Suresh were present.